Les relacions entre política lingüística i comportament lingüístic: apunts des dels casos del francès al Canadà a fora de Quebec

Resum

Government language policy measures aimed at promoting the maintenance of specific languages pose a special challenge when the speakers of a specific language group living amongst other language groups in a given territory constitute a minority. The current sociolinguistic situation in Catalonia is no longer a typical case of what has traditionally been referred to as "language normalization", but, rather, a complex situation in which the coexistence of two large language groups has become a factor that shall determine the outlook and future development of the situation. Consequently, one must complement traditional approaches with other perspectives based on similar cases, the main point of commonality being the territorial coexistence of two different language groups. These cases should also be framed in such a way that both groups have official recognition for their languages and the public authorities implement language equality policies. An example of this situation may be found in Francophone Canada outside of Quebec. There, the language rights of the French-speaking population are guaranteed by the Constitution. However, the majority of the Francophone population outside Quebec is integrated in societies and commercial and media environments which are predominately Anglo. A close look at this situation shows that the weakening of the integenerational continuity of French in these areas cannot be understood without taking into account the fundamental role of social relationships. Speaking of the continuity of the Catalan language community, the author maintains that one cannot ignore informal language behaviours and at the same time expect language policy measures to ensure the future and guarantee the stability of Catalan use.